Background: Enterococcus faecalis is emerging as an important endodontic pathogen, which can persist in the environment for extended periods after treatment and may cause endodontic failure. It is known to produce biofilms, a community of bacteria enclosed within a protective polymeric matrix. This study aimed to establish whether the biofilm formation by Enterococcus faecalis can be inhibited with steralium, co+steralium, and 5% sodium hypochlorite in the root surface environment. Materials and Methods: Extracted human teeth were biomechanically prepared, vertically sectioned, placed in the tissue culture wells exposing the root canal surface to E. faecalis to form a biofilm. At the end of the 3rd and 6th weeks, all groups were treated for 10 minutes with the previously mentioned tested solutions and control and were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results: Qualitative assay with 3-weeks biofilm showed a complete inhibition of bacterial growth with co+steralium and NaOCl, except steralium and saline, which showed presence of bacterial growth. In quantitative analysis, steralium and saline- treated tooth samples have 57.74 ± 5.39* CFU/ml., 140.71 ± 8.49 CFU/ml. respectively. Qualitative assay with 6-week biofilm showed growth when treated with steralium and saline treated tooth samples have 346.0 ± 78.88* CFU/ml., 127.18 ± 17.84 CFU/ml. respectively whereas co+steralium and NaOCl has shown complete inhibition. Conclusions: co+steralium and 5% sodium hypochlorite showed maximum antibacterial activity against E. Faecalis biofilm formed on tooth substrate. co+steralium showed statistically significant antibacterial activity. The use of co+steralium as a root canal irrigant might prove to be advantageous considering the several undesirable characteristics of NaOCl. Key words: Biofilm, E. faecalis, steralium, co+steralium, NaOCl, root canal irrigant.
Micro-perforated panel (MPP) absorber is increasingly gaining popularity as an alternative sound absorber in buildings compared to the well-known synthetic porous materials. A single MPP has a typical feature of a Helmholtz resonator with a high amplitude of absorption but a narrow absorption frequency bandwidth. To improve the bandwidth, a single MPP can be cascaded with another single MPP to form a double-layer MPP. This paper proposes the introduction of inhomogeneous perforation in the double-layer MPP system (DL-iMPP) to enhance the absorption bandwidth of a double-layer MPP. Mathematical models are proposed using the equivalent electrical circuit model and are validated with experiments with good agreement. It is revealed that the DL-
... Show MoreClinical keratoconus (KCN) detection is a challenging and time-consuming task. In the diagnosis process, ophthalmologists must revise demographic and clinical ophthalmic examinations. The latter include slit-lamb, corneal topographic maps, and Pentacam indices (PI). We propose an Ensemble of Deep Transfer Learning (EDTL) based on corneal topographic maps. We consider four pretrained networks, SqueezeNet (SqN), AlexNet (AN), ShuffleNet (SfN), and MobileNet-v2 (MN), and fine-tune them on a dataset of KCN and normal cases, each including four topographic maps. We also consider a PI classifier. Then, our EDTL method combines the output probabilities of each of the five classifiers to obtain a decision b
The root lesion nematode, Pratylenchus neglectus, is one of the most damaging nematodes to affect wheat worldwide. The nematode is widely distributed in Montana, primarily affecting winter wheat within the state. Managing the nematode primarily involves rotation to resistant and moderately resistant crops (peas, lentils, and barley). A nematode survey was conducted across the state nearly 10 years after an initial survey, to reassess the nematode threat and assess the impact of changing trends in crop rotations. To assess the broad applicability of rotation crops to control P. neglectus across Montana, greenhouse trials were conducted to challenge rotational crops using eight populations of P. neglectus collected from geographicall
... Show MoreFour simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams were test experimentaly and analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). This method is used to treat the discontinuities resulting from the fracture process and crack propagation in that occur in concrete. The Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) used to model concrete as a heterogenous material consists of a three-phasic material (coarse aggregate, mortar, and air voids in the cement paste). The coarse aggregate that was used in the casting of these beams rounded and crashed aggregate shape with maximum size of 20 mm. The compressive strength used in these beams is equal to 17 MPa and 34 MPa, respectively. These RC beams are designed to fail due to flexure when subjected to lo
... Show MoreTo evaluate and improve the efficiency of photovoltaic solar modules connected with linear pipes for water supply, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is created and simulated via commercial software (Ansys-Fluent). The optimization utilizes the principles of the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics by employing the Response Surface Method (RSM). Various design parameters, including the coolant inlet velocity, tube diameter, panel dimensions, and solar radiation intensity, are systematically varied to investigate their impacts on energetic and exergitic efficiencies and destroyed exergy. The relationship between the design parameters and the system responses is validated through the development of a predictive model. Both single and mult
... Show MoreThe utilization and incorporation of glass fiber-reinforced plastics (GFRP) in structural applications and architectural constructions are progressively gaining prominence. Therefore, this paper experimentally and numerically investigates the use of GFRP I-beams in conjunction with concrete slabs to form composite beams. The experimental design incorporated 2600 mm long GFRP I-beams which were connected compositely to concrete slabs with a 500 mm width and 80 mm thickness. The concrete slabs are categorized into two groups: concrete slabs cast using normal-strength concrete (NSC), and concrete slabs prepared using high-strength concrete (HSC). Various parameters like the type of concrete (normal and high-strength concrete), type of
... Show MoreLevan is an exopolysaccharide produced by various microorganisms and has a variety of applications. In this research, the aim was to demonstrate the biological activity of levan which produced from B. phenoliresistens KX139300. These were done via study the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antileishmanial activities in vitro. The antioxidant levan was shown 80.9% activity at 1250 µg/mL concentration. The efficient anti-inflammatory activity of 88% protein inhibition was noticed with levan concentration at 35 µg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of levan at 2500 µg/mL concentration showed a maximum cytotoxic effect on L20B cell line and promastigotes of Leishmani tropica. Levan has dose-dependent anticancer and antileishmanial acti
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